The woman photographed being beaten in Cairo is an activist who does not want her name revealed because of her shame at the way she was treated, according to those who were with her at the time.

Hassan Mahmoud, a journalist with the newspaper Al Badeel who was there, said the woman stumbled as she tried to flee from the military police, who managed to grab her and beat her. "It was clear to me that they wanted to take her away from us but then a few brave protesters came in and started hurling stones and that was the one thing that saved her from their hands."

He said she was treated for hand and leg wounds, then taken to a centre for rehabilitation of violence victims called El Nadeem Centre, before being taken home where she was said to be feeling wretched about her treatment.

Though her case was drawing comparison with the instant fame accorded posthumously to Neda Agha Soltan, the Iranian woman killed during the 2009 uprising, the woman appealed for her identity to be kept secret.

Mahmoud said she told him: "It doesn't matter if I talk [to the media] or not, their stripping me is enough to reveal them [the army] and tell enough to those who still believe them."

Clashes continued on Sunday for a third straight day, with the toll rising to 10 dead and 505 injured, according to the Egyptian health ministry. Army sources said 164 people had been detained.

As many as 1,000 protesters were still hurling stones and being confronted by both military police and Interior Ministry police – the latter having only joined the fighting that day – in Sheikh Rihan road nearby Tahrir Square and overlooking the rear of the cabinet building. The street leading from Tahrir towards the front of the cabinet is blocked by cement barricades set up by military police earlier on Sunday.

Most confrontations involved hurling stones, along with occasional hit and run raids by security officers chasing protesters towards Tahrir Square using sticks. There were also a considerable number of plainclothes officers hurling stones at protesters from the rear roof of the cabinet building.

The continuing violence has overshadowed phased elections intended to form a new elected government next year.

• The photograph accompanying that article has been changed because the picture originally used showed a Cairo demonstrator different from the woman dragged away by Egyptian soldiers.